In the field of tooth restoration and repair, dental cavities are often filled and/or sealed with compounds that are photosensitive, either to visible and/or ultraviolet light. These compounds, commonly known as light-curable compounds, are placed within dental cavity preparations or onto dental surfaces and are cured when exposed to light from a dental curing light device.
Many light-curing devices are configured to be handheld devices. Some of them are constructed with fiber optic light wands designed for directing light from the light sources into the patient's mouth. The light sources maybe lamps, halogen bulbs or light-emitting diodes (LED). One end of the light wand may be placed close to the light source so that the light emitted from the light source may be directed into the light wand.
Some light wands are not configured to capture all the light that is generated by the light sources, particularly light that is emitted from LEDs, which may be emitted at angles of up to about 120°. This inefficiency in capturing some of the available light output may contribute to excessive heat generation, which may lead to shorter run times for the curing devices.
One method for overcoming the limitations of light capture disclosed in the prior art is to improve the efficiency of the curing devices by placing the light source(s) of the light-curing devices at the tip of the light-curing devices, so that all of the light generated by the light source(s) may be directed towards a desired location within the patients' mouth. This, however, not only does not overcome the run time problem mentioned above, but at the same time, may create another problem of having the light source being too close to the patient's mouth, causing discomfort to the patient if the tip of the curing device happens to come in contact with the sensitive tissues of the patient's mouth.
One way of overcoming the problem of having excessive heat come too close to the patient's mouth is to mount the light source(s) on a heat sink that may generally conduct the heat away from the tip of the light-curing device. However, this only minimally solves the runtime problem mentioned above.
In addition, multiple light sources used in making a curing light capable of multiple wavelengths may further add to excessive heat generation problems if the light sources generate a wide spectrum of light, leading to more heat that needs to be diverted away from the light sources. Even with light sources generating just the desired wavelength for composite curing, heat generation is still a problem. Consequently, elaborate cooling systems are needed to handle heat, possibly creating a large, heavy and expensive curing light.
Also, for devices with multiple wavelengths, if more light intensity is generated for one wavelength as compared to a second wavelength at the same power input, unless separate power supplies are used, or power is diverted away in some fashion, the excessive intensity at one wavelength may also lead to excessive heat at the point of generation. Accordingly, there remains a need for a new device that can solve the problems listed above.